Interview and his song available at link above. 4th ID returns to Iraq in a couple of months
Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who was described as among the 4th Infantry Division's most aggressive battalion commanders in Iraq, has written a poignant song in tribute to the soldiers who didn't come home. Russell commands the 22nd Infantry Regiment's 1st Battalion, which was responsible for securing Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Through a series of raids, Russell's troops gradually tightened the net on the elusive dictator, who was captured on Dec. 13, 2003 near a group of ramshackle buildings just outside of Tikrit.
Russell said he was inspired to write the song by a conversation with the mother of one of the soldiers under his command who was killed in action. She regretted, he said, that she "never got to say goodbye" to her son. The woman's lament struck him, Russell said, and he later turned to song to express his feelings. |